1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a fastener for assembling two bodies together, and a fixing device and an electronic device using the fastener.
2. Description of Related Art
With the continuing development of electronics technology, electronic packages, such as central processing unit (CPUs), are more powerful than ever before. Such kinds of electronic components correspondingly generate large amounts of heat in operation, and the heat needs to be promptly dissipated to ensure continuing normal operation. A thermal module is usually mounted on the electronic component for dissipating heat, and fasteners are needed for securing the thermal module onto the electronic component. Generally each fastener includes a bolt defining an annular groove near the bottom, a spring disposed around the top of the bolt, and a ring that can be snapped into the groove. After the bolts extend through the thermal module, the rings expand radially and outwardly to snap in the grooves of the bolts. Thereby, the bolts are pre-assembled to the thermal module.
However, during the pre-assembling process, there is no mechanism formed in the bolts which can reliably ensure the snapping of the rings into the grooves. The rings may be mistakenly mounted to ends of the bolts if the rings are not properly aligned with the grooves. When this erroneous mounting happens, the rings may drop from the bolts during transportation of the pre-assembled thermal module. In addition, even when the rings are correctly mounted, after the thermal module is assembled to the electronic component, the rings are no longer needed. The rings are made of metal with good resiliency, and the cost of the thermal module is increased by the need for using the rings.
It is thus desirable to provide a fastener which can overcome the described limitations.